Titus Goes to Rehab
by Arcaya
Summary: After being found guilty of the attempted murder of Jupiter Jones, Titus is sentenced to 65 days in the Panacia Rehabilitation Clinic, at her request. A (reasonably) lighthearted series following Titus' stay in rehab.
1. Guilty

Titus was bored.

The court proceedings had lasted around eight days now, and with the inevitability of his slight indiscretion earlier that year being dismissed completely, he didn't even have nervous apprehension to keep him company. The evidence against him was laughable, the dog splice's words against his own.

Jupiter Jones looked tired. She'd spent a great deal of the proceedings avoiding eye contact with him at every cost. He'd tried to smile and wave back at her from the stand several times, something that had been strongly advised against by his legal counsel, but today Jupiter was not entertaining an exchange back. A couple of times this week she'd stuck her middle finger in the air towards him, what she meant by such an action was beyond him, but he assumed it wasn't a _friendly_ Earth custom. Regardless, it had only made him smile more.

Finally, it was time to take the stand to hear his predictably not guilty verdict. Titus found himself rolling his eyes as the lizard splice read out his titles, his name, and proceeded to drift over the mind-numbing formalities leading up to the verdict. His eyes made fleeting contact with Jupiter's.

" _Guilty."_

This time, it was Jupiter who smiled back, and Titus' expression turned from smug anticipation to distraught disbelief.

"Is this some sort of _joke_?" Titus protested indignantly.

"As an Entitled, you are not subject to imprisonment, but are subject to a number of other penalties due to your offense being committed against another Entitled. As such, Miss Jones has outlined her specifications for these penalties in the following document…"

Titus felt his blood run cold with frustration and horror as the list was read out. It wasn't the penalties themselves, it was the principle. Someone like _her_ did not get to tell someone like _him_ what to do. A lot of them were much tamer than he'd expected them to be: donating money to some stupid splices-in-need charity, donating a small amount of his Regenex supplies to hospitals for healing purposes etc. The list was infuriating, none the less.

"I need a drink." Titus shook his head, his voice practically shaking with anger.

"And lastly, a mandatory 65 day stay in the Panacia Rehabilitation Clinic."

" _What?"_ Titus choked, looking from the lizard splice that stood before him to Jupiter. By now he was practically on the verge of tears.

" _Re-hab."_ Jupiter called out from her stand, sounding out the words just patronisingly enough to hide how much she was enjoying this. "From what I've seen, you could definitely do with a lifestyle adjustment!"

"Case closed!" The lizard splice called over the court room, as two guards appeared at Titus' side.

"Have fun, Titus!" Jupiter's mocking voice sang out across the courtroom. "Be good!"

* * *

"Name?"

The disinterested receptionist asked, continuing to scribble down notes without looking up. She was a splice of some sort, yet Titus couldn't make out what.

" _Name?"_

Pulling himself out of the restraints of the guard who had escorted him into Panacia, Titus attempted to straighten himself up, appear as authoritative as possible, and not desperately miserable that he was going to have to spend the next two months in the hell that was sobriety.

"My _name?_ Oh I'll give you my name! I am Lord Titus Abrasax, third… _second_ …primary heir to the Great House of Abrasax, and I demand that you discharge me from this…this… _circus…_ at once!" He winced at his momentarily lapse in memory regarding Balem's death.

The receptionist continued scribbling down notes against her clipboard, her gaze briefly flickering upward to meet Titus'.

"Dr. Shule, the Abrasax brat is here." She called towards the office door behind her.

" _Excuse me?_ Did you not hear what I just said?!"

The receptionist sighed, clicking her pen in, and reaching underneath the desk. She placed a small pile of folded, grey clothes down in front of her, pushing them towards Titus.

"Get changed into these after checking in. Everyone here wears the same clothes. No exceptions."

"I am not wearing those!" Titus snorted.

"No exceptions. Not for _you_ , not for _anyone."_

"But—" Titus looked down at the grey sweatshirt and trousers with a mixture of bemusement and disgust. "They're disgusting! You can't really expect me to wear these! This is -"

"And the rings too, can't have you flying into a rage because you can't get your own way with those things on your fingers." The receptionist motioned to the numerous, jewelled ornaments on Titus' hands with her pen. She already appeared bored of the conversation.

For a moment, Titus stared blankly back at the receptionist, wide eyed with irritation and disbelief. As he pulled the rings from his fingers with a deliberate, tedious pace, he finally saw it. She was a sloth splice.

"You know, what? No. I'm not taking orders from a fucking sloth splice!" He laughed, holding on to his rings in one hand.

"Well, I'm not taking orders from a _fucking_ spoilt brat who's managed to develop a substance abuse problem because he's so rich he has nothing better to do. And don't get me started on _why_ you're so rich, that's a whole other path I could lead down." The receptionist replied, with little more than a second's pause. "My name is Lyta, by the way. In case 'fucking sloth splice' is too much of a mouthful for you. "

Titus was stunned, falling short of a decent response as he stared back at her. He placed his rings down on the desk.

"So that's you checked in." Lyta replied after around half a minute of uncomfortable silence. "You're in room 316. Make sure you've changed into your clothes within the hour, Dr Shule will be visiting you shortly."

Reluctantly, Titus picked up the bundle of disgusting grey cloth, and allowed the guards to escort him to his room.

" _I hate my life."_


	2. Therapy

**Day 3**

"Now don't feel like you have to hold back from anything here, this session is intended for us to discuss our _feelings_ , really let them out and connect with each other."

The exceedingly patronising tone of Dr. Shule, one of the only humanoid employees of the clinic, rang out across the circle of irritated looking patients.

Titus sat, arms crossed in a petulant strop, slouching back in his chair with the defiance of a moody adolescent. He'd slicked his dark brown hair back with the water from the drinking fountain in an attempt to still appear somewhat preened despite being dressed in the horrible grey uniform he'd been given.

"Titus, perhaps you'd like to speak? You're a newcomer to our _circle of connection_ after all."

There was a single second's pause before Titus burst out laughing. The laughter eventually deteriorated into muffled snickering as he hid his face in his palms.

 **Day 5**

"Come now, Lyta. How much can you _really_ be earning, sitting here at this desk?"

Titus leaned over the desk, smiling strangely at her, moving far too close for comfort. He put a tremoring hand against her own, as she reached for the keyboard. His hand was drenched with sweat, and would not stop shaking even as he held her palm firmly down against his. Was he trying to be seductive? She couldn't tell. All she could pick up on was cringe-worthy desperation.

"What if I told you, you'd never have to work again?" Titus was still trying; his attempts at grooming his hair with tap water (like it wasn't obvious) had been increasingly unsuccessful, his hair now hanging in front of his face in tasselled strands. "All you have to do, is get me some of the stuff I asked for…"

"Get you some contraband material, Mr Abrasax?" Lyta asked, loudly, to which Titus winced at terribly. "Now if I'm not mistaken, that would be in violation not only of the rules of this clinic but of the law too, would it not?"

"It's _Lord_ Abrasax! For fuck's sake, you're a bloody splice! I'm offering you riches beyond your wildest dreams!" Titus snapped, pulling his hand away from Lyta's.

"If _this_..." Lyta motioned towards Titus, "…is what riches beyond your wildest dreams does for you, I think I'll pass." The sloth splice replied, glancing over to a nearby guard. "I think _Lord Abrasax_ would like to return to his room for a bit of rest, if you'd like to escort him?"

 **Day 7**

Titus didn't leave his room that day. He'd spent the first few hours of the day gazing into the mirror, feeling slightly sorry for himself. Why had this happened to him? He didn't deserve this.

Slightly sorry for himself was maybe an understatement.

As the day went on, however, he began to think about his siblings. Balem was dead, and he hadn't really acknowledged it fully until now. And Kalique, why hadn't Kalique visited him?

Also, why was he still being forced to wear this horrible outfit?

 **Day 10**

"Would anyone like to share their feelings today?" Dr Shule, again.

"I think I would." Came the trembling voice of the walrus splice on the other side of the room.

"Go ahead Marinus."

Titus watched the walrus splice begin his story, reach the blubbering climax, and then begin to be comforted by the surrounding circle with an irritating script of platitudes.

He snorted, began laughing, and once again, couldn't stop.

"Something wrong, Titus?" Dr Schule.

"No, no, please…" Titus managed, through gasps of laughter. "Go on."

 **Day 12**

"Lyta, you know I'm sorry about last week. I was angry, you understand. You see, I don't deserve to be here. I really don't. This is all part of a spiteful vendetta against me."

"Didn't you try to marry and then _kill_ your _mother_?" Lyta's eyebrows raised slightly.

"That bitch is _not_ my mother!" Titus snapped.

"And you're _not_ getting those drugs you want. Do I have to call the guards again?"

**Day 14**

Two weeks. It had been two weeks and still no visit from Kalique. Was she angry? Titus wasn't sure. They'd barely spoken a word since Balem's death.

 **Day 15**

"Does anyone want to share their feelings today?" Shule.

"I would." Titus raised his hand, to Dr. Shule's surprise.

"Ah, Titus, I'm glad to see you finally contributing. What is it you'd like to share with us today?"

"I'd just like to express how much of a fucking waste of time these sessions are, _Dr. Shule_. Also, I was wondering how much I'd have to pay you to get me some of the drugs I keep asking for?"

 **Day 16**

Titus hadn't even been aware solitary confinement existed within rehab.


	3. Klaxon

**Day 18**

"You do understand why it was necessary to put you in solitary confinement, don't you Titus?"

Shule's one on one sessions were even more patronising than the 'circle of connection.'

"Titus, did you hear me?"

Sprawled out against the ridiculous 'therapy couch', Titus lolled his head to one side.

"Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you understood why you were put in isolation. There's no point in you being here if you don't learn from your mistakes, after all." Dr Shule's saccharine patience was clearly running thin, much to Titus' amusement.

"Not to be rude, but I never _did_ want to be here. Court ordered stay. Surely you're aware of this? How many patients here actually _want_ to be? The bars around this building suggest to me there are very few." He smiled.

Dr Shule's grip on his clipboard tightened as he struggled to remain composed.

"One might think you'd make a little more of an effort to conform to the rules of this clinic," Shule went on irritably after a pause, "…seeing as you've clearly been given a very, almost _inconceivably_ light sentence for your actions."

"What was it the motto of this place is, again? Friendly, _non-Judgemental_ rehabilitation for all? I can't remember it word for word but I distinctly remember that part."

Dr Shule finally lost his patience entirely, slamming his clipboard down on the side and standing up.

"OK, Titus, if this is how you want it then fine. You've been here little over 2 weeks and already I can see you are a completely pointless endeavour! You're here because you tried to marry your own mother, you tried to _murder_ her! You sit in some luxury mansion, taking drugs and complaining about how hard your life is! You believe you're more important than every other living creature in the galaxy because of your last name- you… you bathe in the blood of innocents for goodness sake! I challenge you to name even _one_ redeeming quality about yourself! Go ahead and enlighten me." By this point, Shule's glasses had steamed up, and his hair had fallen out of place, making him appear more like one of the patients at Panacia than one of the doctor's.

There was a lengthy pause.

"Well, I have really nice teeth."

 **Day 19**

Titus stared irritably into the back of the 7ft tall creature's head as it continued to monopolize the use of the only working drinking fountain. He found himself grinding his teeth with irritation as he watched the creature (it seemed almost humanoid, yet far more muscular and towering than the average human form, with a strange, violet hue to his skin), at one point it seemed as if he were about to stop, but then continued once again.

Titus' temper finally bubbled over, and he grabbed hold of the creature's arm.

"Excuse me, but perhaps you'd like to give someone else a turn now?"

The creature turned round, wiping the remaining droplets of water from his mouth with a huge hand.

"Klaxon done soon. You wait."

"I'm an Entitled!" Titus snapped, at the very idea of this thing telling him to wait a single second longer, "I don't have to wait for some bloody … _monster_ in _any_ situation! Now move out of my way!"

Titus attempted to shove past the creature known as Klaxon.

"What you call Klaxon?" The creature did not budge, giant palms clenching into fists.

"I called you a monster! Because that's what you are! A fucking monster! Now move out of my—"

Klaxon did not wait for Titus to finish his demand before landing one of his fists directly into the other's face, knocking him out cold instantly.

"Abrasax wait its turn."

 **Day 21**

Titus' face was so sore he couldn't even be bothered to laugh at the whiney stories in today's 'circle of connection', instead, he simply sulked. Shule had denied him any access to his Regenex supplies for healing purposes, and so he was forced to let the black eye heal on its own. The woman sat across from him was whispering louder than she thought.

"Yeah, punched him square in the face apparently, out of isolation tomorrow though. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to escape again, you know he's broken out three times now?"

 **Day 22**

"Klaxon, is that your name? Look, no hard feelings, about…you know…" Titus motioned to his eye, leaning over Klaxon, who seemed uncomfortable as he sat, cornered in the cafeteria. "I'm sorry for calling you a monster too. That was wrong."

"Klaxon not monster. Klaxon Giant."

"Oh, how interesting." Titus said, in a tone that barely masked his insincerity. He didn't exactly have to try hard to lie to someone like this, after all. "Do you know what else is interesting, something I heard about you today."

"What you hear about Klaxon?"

"I've heard, you're quite the escape artist. How would you like to help me escape?"

Klaxon may have been too stupid not to be discovered, but he at least had the means to initially escape.

"I'll rephrase that for you, how would you like to be rich?"

 **Day 24**

For such a seemingly dumb creature, Klaxon's secret route he had mapped out to Titus had been perfect. A tunnel system, roughly 10ft underground. The system started in the yard, eventually leading out just outside the iron gates of Panacia. Fortunately Klaxon had declined escaping with him.

Finally, submerged in dirt, Titus arrived at the exit of the tunnel, pulling himself up onto the free ground outside.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and then winced as the flashing torchlight hit his eyes.

"There! Abrasax trying to escape, just like Klaxon told you!" Klaxon stood, by the side of Dr Shule, and several guards.

"Going somewhere, Titus?" Dr Shule asked.

 **Day 26**

Maybe it was the solitary confinement, perhaps it was the extended stay of 4 weeks, or maybe it was the fact he _still_ hadn't heard anything from Kalique, but that night, all Titus seemed capable of doing was curling himself into a ball and sobbing.


	4. Visitor

**Day 32**

The past week had been a painful, mind-numbing blur. But the tiny, confined space of the isolation room had done more than simply bore Titus. It had forced him to think, _really think_. He wasn't used to it, and it hadn't been welcome. The minute the door opened that morning, he knew he'd had enough of sobriety. Was it any wonder he'd spent the past several millennia in an indulgent, intoxicated daze? Since he'd come to Panacia (especially during the tormenting detours into solitary confinement), Titus had experienced sensations he'd forgotten he could even feel: regret, longing, guilt… grief. All this place had taught him was the amazing benefits of a life of hedonism.

"I would stand here and lecture you, but I doubt it'd do much good." Dr Shule was muttering, marking Titus' release from isolation down on that stupid clipboard of his. "Know this, Titus, I am as devastated as you are about your extended stay. So let's hold back on the smarminess, shall we? Now, not that you deserve it, but you have a visitor at noon tomorrow, so perhaps you'd like to dedicate today to making yourself presentable?"

Shule was still talking, although Titus had stopped listening at the mention of a visit.

 _She hadn't forgotten him after all._

 **Day 33**

 _8am_

For the first time since his arrival at Panacia, Titus awoke when instructed. He felt a strange, unfamiliar sense of excitement at the prospect of finally seeing Kalique. He smiled to himself slightly as he combed his hair back and pulled on his horrible grey sweatshirt. He felt a brief pang of shame that he had actually allowed himself to become excited about seeing her, but without any other substances to comfort him, Kalique had become more and more of a fixation in the past few weeks. He couldn't wait to simply _hug_ her, how ridiculous. Several millennia together had undone many of the boundaries of a normal sibling relationship. They'd fucked, as she'd done with Balem, as _he'd_ even entertained with Balem on a few regrettable occasions. But time destroyed those boundaries, and it was very easy to slip back into a normal sibling dynamic when desired. That was _all_ he desired from her now, he told himself. It was pathetic, he knew it was pathetic, but it was just him and her now. Their mother and brother were gone, and right now he wanted nothing more than to be reminded he still had a living, breathing relative. Besides, Kalique was an excellent liar, much better than himself; when she told him everything was going to be OK he almost believed it.

 _12pm_

Titus had managed to compose his excitement enough to convey a cheery nonchalance as he pushed the door to the visiting room open, scanning the room for his sister. She wasn't there. Perhaps she was late; he tried to convince himself, knowing full well Kalique was never late for anything. And then he saw him. Caine Wise.

Titus felt his heart skip a beat as he stared back at the splice that had ruined his otherwise perfect plan. Was this some sort of cruel joke?

"Are you going to stand there gawping at me or are we going to talk?"

 _12:05pm_

"So, how are you?" Wise broke the silence, after several uncomfortable minutes.

"Am I meant to believe you care?" Titus laughed, shaking his head, staring up into the eyes of the splice with bemused contempt.

"No, I don't. " Wise took a sip of his coffee, seemed to grimace slightly at the taste of it, before setting it back down. "Can you blame me?"

"Right. Awfully sorry about all of that. No hard feelings?" Titus asked, rhetorically.

"You shot me into space."

"I suppose I did. Shame it didn't take."

The silence dragged on for a further minute, before Wise began to speak once more.

"Miss Jones sent me, I'm sure you were eager to know why I'd force myself to speak to you once again…"

"Not really—"

"…She wanted to know how you were doing."

"How terribly sadistic of her." Titus laughed, remembering his excitement at the prospect of a visit from his sister, suddenly becoming enraged once again. "I didn't have her down as a sadist. She was very similar to my mother in that way."

"She wanted to know if the sentence was working, actually. I can't imagine why, perhaps she's too kind for her own good." Caine spat back, clearly losing his patience.

"Oh, she definitely is. That's what made her so foolish in the first place. She really didn't inherit an awful lot of my mother's intelligence." Titus smiled back, making sure to look the splice straight in the eye as he spoke.

Wise ignored him, reaching out a closed palm across the table until he reached Titus, clasping it around Titus' open hand and dropping a small bag of something within it. Titus immediately closed his palm around the bag, pulling his arms from the table.

"Miss Jones is a kind, forgiving person. But I'm not. Personally, I hope your addictions kill you. I really do."

Titus opened his palm briefly to glance at the bag of high-end narcotics Wise had placed in his hand.

" _Knock yourself out_ , Abrasax."

 _2pm_

The temptation was too much. So what if the splice wanted him to kill himself with them? He wasn't stupid. He could control it. Besides, he couldn't spend a single second longer thinking. It was too much.

 _3:30pm_

Sweet, glorious intoxication. This was the reason he'd prolonged his life for so long. This was living. This was everything.

 _5pm_

"And another thing," Titus slurred, half leaning into Dr Shule's doorway, one of his grey plimsolls missing, his hair drenched in sweat, "…that fucking tie you wear makes you look like an absolute prick!"

 _5:15pm_

Had Shule been chasing him? Someone had been chasing him. Either way, no one would chase him into the water fountain. That was for sure.

 _5:30pm_

"Where's my sister? Where's my bloody sister? No, get off me! I don't want to get up! I want to see that fucking, lying bitch and tell her… No, I want her to tell me… I want… "

Dr Shule watched as the guards pulled Titus out of the water fountain.

"Should we put him back in isolation, doctor?"

Dr Shule gazed over Titus, frowned, eventually shaking his head.

"No. He's taken too much. Take him to the infirmary."


	5. Hospital

**Day 36**

"And how _did_ he get it exactly? Was this all part of her plan? Send him here, supply him with enough drugs to kill ten people, and then claim it to be an unfortunate accident?"

"I assure you we had no intention of this _ever_ taking place under our watch, Lady Abrasax. Please trust me when I tell you that -"

"I will _not_ have Jupiter Jones turn my brother into some pathetic cautionary tale." Kalique interjected calmly, her icy gaze successfully shutting up Dr. Shule's protests temporarily. She relit the end of the long, thin cigarette, grasping the diamond-encrusted holder tightly as she exhaled. Shule stirred uncomfortably.

"I, uh…we…we do ask that you don't… smoke… within this building."

Kalique raised her eyebrows, exhaling once more. She smiled.

"Come on now, Mr. Shule, don't force me to be cruel."

Shule shuffled several of the scattered papers on his desk awkwardly, clearing his throat and flushing red slightly.

"I'd like to see him." Kalique said finally.

"He's still in the hospital, Lady Abrasax, it is against our policy to—"

" _Please,_ if you call me Lady Abrasax one more time I think I may have to harm you in some way." Kalique put a hand up, her tone remained cheery, but the growing hostility was unmistakable.

"My apologies, Miss-"

"I would _really_ appreciate it if you would allow me to visit my brother, Mr. Shule." Kalique's airy expression little more than a thinly veiled threat by this point.

Shule knew better than to argue. He'd heard rumours about Kalique Abrasax, supposedly the most callous and relentless of all three of the Abrasax siblings, although most doubted it until she was given reason to show them otherwise. Dr Shule found it alarming to consider that perhaps Titus had always been the kindest of the three siblings. Although, he considered, there _was_ only Kalique and Titus left now. From what he had seen, neither seemed to be too concerned about their brother's very recent death.

* * *

"You're an idiot, do you know that?"

Titus' eyes flickered open, his vision blurry as he squinted to make out the fuzzy silhouette addressing him. At first, he believed he must have been dreaming again. The past several days had been little more than a series of shaking, sweating, headaches and horrendous nightmares. Was this how withdrawals felt without the aid of Regenex? He felt so…human. It was disgusting.

"Are you listening to me? Who gave the drugs to you, was it her? Did she pay you a visit?" Kalique grabbed hold of his arm, examining the IV in it as she did so.

"Kalique?" Titus asked, his voice hoarse from the lack of recent use. "Am I awake?"

"Of course you're awake. What is this they've put in this, water? Are they denying you Regenex now too?" Kalique asked, continuing to examine his arm.

Titus felt his intense headache briefly subside as he awoke fully, his heart racing with nervous excitement as he realised it really _was_ Kalique.

"Where have you been?" He asked.

Kalique fell silent, looking over her younger sibling, wincing as she took in the dark circles under his eyes, chapped lips, the unusually pale skin, weight loss. She'd never seen him in such a bad state before, and she'd seen him in some bad states.

"Are you disappointed it was me you were left with?" Titus asked playfully, a faint smirk and glint in his bloodshot eyes appearing briefly.

"Left with, Titus?" Kalique asked, her eyes were glassy with tears.

"Well, now that Balem is gone—

"I don't want to talk about Balem." Kalique snapped, quickly.

"Why? Why can't I talk about him? Don't act like you're not glad, sister. After all, now you're the primary heir! Not that any of that matters now, considering-"

"You really can be an evil bastard sometimes, can't you?" Kalique interrupted, standing from the chair she had been sitting in.

"Perhaps I'm just following my siblings' example."

"Our brother is _dead,_ Titus, let him rest in peace." Kalique muttered turned her back to leave.

"Wait!" Titus blurted out, finding himself momentarily overcome with panic. He felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment as Kalique turned back around, surprised but just a little satisfied at the same time.

"Please, don't… don't go yet." He managed to force himself to say.

Kalique sighed, sitting herself back down and laying her hand over Titus'. She smiled sadly.

"You nearly died too, Titus. You know, I don't fancy being an only child after so many thousands of years being irritated to no end by my siblings."

"I would have thought you'd be glad. No more competition. Well, once that bitch is out of the way." Titus laughed, Kalique didn't. "I'm not going to die anyway." He added, dismissively. But Kalique's expression remained the same.

"What makes you so sure of that anymore?" Kalique's grip on his hand tightened briefly, before she realised, and let go entirely.

"Do you actually think I _should_ be here?" Titus laughed, incredulously.

Kalique hesitated.

"I just want you to feel better."

" _Feel better?_ I was feeling fine before she did this to me! Before she came along, stole our inheritance, put me in here—"

"You have an interesting definition of 'fine', Titus." Kalique shook her head. "You know, you really aren't as good a liar as you think you are. "

Titus' mind reeled with a million different defensive responses, before he finally decided to say nothing at all.

"Feel better, little brother." Kalique smiled, with that strange, almost hostile friendliness he could never fully decipher. She stood, planting a kiss against his cheek. He remembered a time it would have been a kiss on the lips.

Titus found himself unable to say goodbye as he watched Kalique walk away, and it wasn't until later that night he felt that awful, aching pain in his chest that seemed to eclipse the rest of the pain he was in, as he longed for her to return. He longed for something else too, maybe, but it hurt his head to even get into that.


	6. Zalintyre

**Day 40**

"So, how are you feeling?" Dr Shule asked, robotically.

He didn't glance up once as Titus sat down in his office, still wincing somewhat from the joint pain that seemed reluctant to leave. Whatever Wise had given to him, it must have been strong. Deliberately strong, most likely, but not strong enough it seemed.

"Well, I feel like I've had a drug overdose." Titus' usual cockiness seemed eclipsed by his worn out demeanour, and Shule clocked it instantly, glancing up and looking back at him with a vaguely satisfied smile.

"Still going for the witty comebacks over any substantial emotional response I see. Very good, Titus. Very good. I'm glad your little near death experience has taught you well."

The room was cold, almost unbearably so. The fan in the room had been placed in a fixed position towards his chair, and he couldn't help but think it had been deliberate.

"You know, when I get out of here, I could order for your indefinite imprisonment if I wanted to. I could maybe even order for your death." Titus muttered.

"Anything that happens to you under your sentence is exempt from punishment, Titus, you should know that." Shule raised his eyebrows, daring to stare back at Titus in a way only his brother had dared to before.

"I'll lie." Titus shrugged.

"Isn't that what got you here in the first place?" Shule laughed.

 **Day 45**

"This place is driving me crazy."

A woman was whining, loudly. She appeared to be young, early 20s, the age Titus appeared. And human, completely human. She sat several feet away from Titus on the grass, rocking herself back and forth as she dug her nails into her thighs.

"I want. to. go. home." She continued to mutter to herself.

She was pretty.

It was a hot day, the blazing heat was so bad, most patients had returned indoors. But Titus enjoyed the heat; he enjoyed laying against the cool grass, sunglasses on, admiring the bizarre shifts in weather of this terrible universe. He also might get a tan, he thought, if he stayed out here long enough.

"I want to go home! I want to go fucking home!" The girl was screaming now.

Titus pushed himself up from where he lay, strolling across the grass until he reached her. He sat down, eye level with her.

"And where is home, my dear?" He tried his best to emulate the charming, carefree persona he'd adopted outside of Panacia.

The girl's expression passed through a series of shock, realisation, and disgust in a matter of seconds.

"Zalintyre. You ever heard of it, Abrasax?"

Before Titus had the opportunity of a response, she had picked herself up off the grass, and stormed away as quickly as possible.

 **Day 50**

 _Circle of connection. Circle of piss off and die. I should have been going home in two weeks._

"So does anyone have anything they'd like to share?" Shule.

"Yes." One non-descript splice stood up, emotional, annoying expression on his face. "I would."

"Go ahead, Leothane." Stupid name. Such a stupid name.

"Well, I'd just like to know, why it is that we are having to share our feelings with…with that _monster_ over there _!_ " Leothane pointed in Titus' direction.

The human girl from Zalintyre made a somewhat deranged noise of approval at this, as did several other members of the group.

"The Abrasax family is responsible for the death of _billions_ of innocents! And we just let this happen? This little brat's empire harvested poor Kitty's planet just a few months ago!"

Titus felt a horrible, sinking sensation in his chest. Momentarily, he felt a strong desire to jump out of his own skin, and run far away from where he was. He wasn't sure whether to apologise, or to argue back, or to break down into tears. What was this horrible feeling? He didn't know what to do with it.

Instead, he laughed.

"Oh, boo hoo. Trust me _, Kitty_ , your inferior planet has been put to better use."

There was a collective gasp, and then a silence, as the group watched Kitty walk out of the room.

"Something I said?" Titus raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.

"How can you live with yourself, Abrasax?" Leothane was shaking his head, apparently in disbelief.

"Quite easily, actually. I'm rich, I'm Entitled, I'm young—"

" _No."_ Leothane cut him off sharply. "You're not young at all. You're an illusion. Everything about you is a fucking lie, and you know it."

"Oh, how deep." Titus laughed, feeling himself shake slightly despite himself.

Leothane stormed out shortly afterwards.

"Too emotional, that's probably where their problem began." Titus sighed, turning back towards the room as Leothane left it.

"And where did your problem begin exactly, Titus?" Shule responded, almost immediately.

"Sorry?"

"You can play the rich, self-indulgent playboy card as much as you want, but it's only going to work for you a little while longer, Abrasax, I can see it fading every day." Shule continued. "And by the way, if you even so much as _dare_ to make light of the massacre of any of the patients' home planets again, I'll give them the key to your room. I can't imagine they'd be too merciful towards someone who laughs in the face of _genocide._ "

Again, that horrible feeling.

"That wasn't what I meant—" Titus found himself protesting, feeling himself shaking.

Shule appeared shocked, but continued: "You knew what you meant perfectly well."

"No…I…" Titus felt a lump form in his throat, he felt abnormally cold.

"You… _what?"_ One member of the group shouted.

"I don't…" He felt terrified, stuck for a response, and finding his mind playing back pictures of Zalintyre. Balem had kept pictures of the Harvest. Why?

"Oh, poor little rich boy, can't seem to find the words?" Someone was shouting back at him.

They were laughing.

He stood, pushing his chair out and walking slowly out of the room, jeering and insults following him until he closed the door and walked down the halls.


	7. Coffee

**Day 55**

Every night, Titus found himself at a different party. These dreams weren't quite nightmares, but something in between. Every night for the past week, Titus found himself forced to relive the parties that had given him so much… _whatever_ they'd given him. Perhaps it was the emptiness that he missed, a pleasant emptiness, not this uncomfortable, painful _nothing_ sobriety had forced him to endure. Since his sentencing, everyone had been quick to tell him how unbelievably lenient Jupiter Jones had been on him, how incredibly _merciful_ she'd been. It was as if only she and him knew the truth, this wasn't a mercy at all, it was a very deliberate torture. Of course she had no interest in his sobriety. This was purely revenge, and maybe, Titus considered, as he awoke in a cold sweat for the second time that night, maybe he even deserved it. But fuck her anyway.

 **Day 57**

That night, Titus didn't dream of parties at all. He dreamt of the harvest. This dream was filled with awful screaming, clawing desperation and whirring machinery, churning away through a blood-soaked landscape. He found himself stuck to the spot, unable to scream, unable to move, opening his mouth only to find he was mute. He wanted them to turn the machines off, he wanted them to stop. And then, finally, just as he reached a point in which he felt as if his chest might burst from the effort of _not_ screaming, everything stopped. Darkness and silence drowned out the horrific imagery, the bloodcurdling cries.

" _Titus…"_

Titus felt his entire body shudder at the sound of his dead brother's voice. It echoed through the darkness, detached and omniscient. He felt his throat and chest tense in fear.

" _Titus, don't be afraid…"_

It was then that he became aware of the water surrounding him; he was in a body of water, immersed up to his chest. He could feel his heart beating rapidly, and he could smell that faint, chemical scent of Regenex as his eyes began to adjust to his surroundings. He was in one of Kalique's Regenex pools, and he was face to face with Balem.

"Your eyes…" Titus found himself speaking aloud, as he stared back at the whites of his brother's eyes, the pupil and iris were not present, nor was any particular warmth to the skin, the lips were almost blue. Titus wanted to run, but the Regenex pool seemed to be doubling and then tripling in size, and he feared he might drown attempting to escape.

"Look, brother!" Balem rasped, suddenly, grabbing hold of Titus' arm and gesturing down towards the Regenex water beneath the two of them. "Look what she did to me!"

Titus found himself screaming a similarly blood curdling scream to the victims of that poor, harvested planet he had been stuck in moments before as he stared down at the dark crimson liquid that had begun to gather around the two of them, transforming the Regenex pool into a bath of blood.

Pulling himself from Balem's grip, Titus decided he'd rather chance drowning. Finally, he pulled himself to the edge of the pool, and breathed half a sigh of relief, before hearing the chilling, female voice from behind him.

" _Hello sweetheart."_

He felt a horrible, icy coldness in his body as he turned round reluctantly to see his mother, stood by the side of the pool. Unlike Balem, Seraphi appeared as alive as the last time he'd seen her, her skin a warm caramel, and her beautiful white dress untarnished by the bloody water nearby.

"Mother?" Titus found himself stammering as he knelt just a few feet away from her. Despite his initial horror, he felt a compulsive desire for her loving embrace, the comfort of a soft, motherly kiss against his forehead.

"Your brother's right, you shouldn't be afraid." Seraphi's arms outstretched. Titus scrambled to his feet, took a step towards her. "No one should be afraid of death."

Titus couldn't react soon enough, and he felt himself falling back as Seraphi pushed him, he was falling, a long way down. Everything was suddenly an oppressive orange-red, and smoke filled his lungs. Above him as he fell, Balem and Seraphi stood at the balcony of Balem's refinery. Fuck, this was going to hurt when he reached the floor.

 **Day 58**

Lyta set her coffee cup down on the coaster by her side. It was her favourite mug, with a picture of The Milky Way across it.

"What do you want, Abrasax?" She asked, sensing Titus' presence before she'd even looked up.

"Could I have some of that?" Titus' voice sounded bizarrely desperate, and as she glanced up, she could see why.

"When did you last sleep?" The sloth splice raised an eyebrow.

"Last night." Titus swallowed, adjusting the dull grey sweatshirt he'd apparently failed to notice he'd put on inside out.

"You sure about that?"

"Look, they only do coffee in the visitor's room, and I _really_ need some. I can't sleep properly and you know they don't let us sleep during the day." Titus continued, leaning against the desk, his hair flopping messily in front of him. He seemed strangely devoid of his characteristic smarminess today, perhaps he really was tired.

"Come on Lyta, _you know you love me."_

Nevermind.

"Your sweatshirt's inside out." Lyta sighed, walking over to the coffee maker.

" _What?"_ Titus asked, indignantly.

"Your sweatshirt, I can see the tag that says…property of Panacia Rehabilitati—"

"OK! OK!" Titus quickly attempted to stop Lyta from further embarrassing him, and quickly pulled his sweatshirt off to adjust it.

When Lyta returned with his coffee, he'd managed to pull it back on the right way, and took the cup from her without saying thank you, presumably to regain some lost dignity and re-establish he was an Entitled or…some shit. After about three gulps, he'd finished it, and slammed it back down on her desk abruptly.

"Are you OK?" Lyta found herself asking despite herself.

"I'm fine." Titus smiled, a little bit of the usual haughtiness returning to his voice. But he paused. "Thanks, Lyta."

"That's OK, Abrasax,"

"It's…it's just Titus you know." Titus added, and then visibly seemed to cringe.

"OK, Abrasax."


	8. Charity

**Three Months Ago**

"Here's to living forever, fucking forever…and getting spectacularly wasted _whenever!_ "

Titus screamed to the hall of intoxicated onlookers, swaying slightly on the lid of the grand piano he was somehow maintaining a balance on, drink in one hand, cigarette in the other. The room was spinning and he felt as if he may throw up any second, but that was OK, the beautiful numb sensation he'd been experiencing had begun to gather to an ecstatic high, and pretty soon he wouldn't even notice the nausea, or the headache, or think about anything he didn't wish to think about.

The music blared.

After a slurred cheer, his guests gradually began to lose interest in his speech, and returned back to their drinks, their drugs, their attempts at finding a suitable person to fuck in one of the many unoccupied rooms of the clipper.

"Titus, get down from there, you're going to slip and fall."

Titus looked down towards the direction of the female voice, squinting to distinguish the speaker as Famulus, who stood, looking gorgeous as ever, in that red ball gown he'd given her. She looked great in it, so great in fact that he could almost ignore the fact she was a splice. Almost.

"I'm fine; will you ever lighten up, dear?" He smiled, his white teeth gleaming and contrasting the bloodshot eyes and sweat drenched hair and skin of what seemed to be an almost maniacal intoxication.

"Deer?"

"No. I didn't mean… _deer."_ Titus laughed, sliding himself down a little less than gracefully from the piano, leaning against it as he stared back at the deer splice, grinning. "I didn't mean like…deer…splice…I meant as in…as in _dear…"_

He began laughing as Famulus walked off in an apparent mood.

"Hey, Fam, don't walk away from me!" Titus was still laughing, as he screamed across the room. _"Famulus!"_

She ignored him, storming out of the ball room entirely.

"Fine then! Fucking splice bitch! You're fired, by the way!"

The nearby guests pretended to not hear the slur, averting all eye contact in the fear they would be next.

Kalique watched from one of the nearby tables, finding herself tired and distracted with the whole night. This sort of scene had been such a regular occurrence in the past few weeks, she wasn't sure if she was interested in what happened to Titus either way anymore. She exhaled the last of her cigarette, dotting it out into the diamond ashtray by her side. She really didn't know why she'd wasted so much time around Titus recently; perhaps it was motivated by fear of loss, or a need to keep hold of something familiar. But the truth was, Balem was dead, and the only person in this universe that cared was her. Titus only cared about Titus. Besides, in a few weeks, he'd undoubtedly be found guilty of every charge Jupiter Jones had filed against him and would be out of her life either way soon enough.

 **Day 60**

Caine Wise sat in the visitor's room, his expression was a mixture of irritation and jeering smugness.

"Still alive, then?" Wise sighed, as Titus reluctantly pulled up a chair, having yet again, expected Kalique. She hadn't visited since.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Titus grinned back, having clocked the frustration in the splice's tone immediately. He smiled an irritating, toothy smile. "Thanks for the drugs, by the way, although it's a shame you couldn't have obtained something a little less… _common."_

"You enjoyed them?"

"Of course I did."

"That's not what I heard." Caine was smiling, "…not what I heard at all, actually."

"Well, I'm telling you myself—"

"You overdosed on it, didn't you?" He was laughing. "You're a never ending supply of clichés, Abrasax, you know that?"

Titus' expression remained composed, the faint smile on his face still present. "What do you want, dog?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked me that, Titus, so glad." Wise's eyes were glinting with anticipation as he spoke, pausing briefly before he continued. "Miss Jones has sent me here to inform you of a recent order she has passed, regarding your Regenex supply."

Titus froze, his smile vanished.

" _What?"_

"It's being donated," Wise took great pleasure in enunciating, "…Miss Jones feels your supplies would be far more beneficial for the survivors of many of the planets your family has mercilessly harvested. Help them repopulate, rehabilitate, recover. You know, that sort of thing."

"But…" Titus felt himself chill with a combination of fear and rage, "…they're not going to want to use… I mean…"

"Oh yes, a lot of them will most likely deny the use of it all together. In that case, Miss Jones has permitted the destruction of their allocated supply."

Titus said nothing, for a while, finding himself focusing on the spiraling coils in the pattern of the wallpaper behind Caine, unable to accept what he'd just heard.

"No." He shook his head, swallowing. "No, that's…no. She can't do that to me…she can't…"

His eyes met with Caine's, he found himself on the verge of tears.

"Please… tell her I've changed, I'm not…I'm not like I was!" He tried, wincing at the indignant tone in his voice, but at the same time persevering. "Look, I'm sorry OK? I'm sorry for all of it, I know it was wrong now, I do! Just please convince her not to do this—"

Caine snorted, standing to leave.

Titus stood also, grabbing hold of Wise's arm.

"Caine, _please!_ "

Someone laughed from nearby. Leothane, maybe.

"I'm sorry." Caine muttered, the satisfied expression in his face having vanished also. "Now get the fuck off me."


	9. Play

**Day 61**

"So that's why I thought it would be an exciting chance to get involved. Anyone interested?"

Shule stood in the middle of the circle of connection, enthusiastically handing out his cringe worthy leaflets to the room. Some of the patients feigned enthusiasm, some seemed genuinely interested, and others seemed embarrassed as they began to read through it. Normally, this would have been a prime opportunity for Titus to burst out laughing in Shule's face.

"So, just to be clear, this play will be a sort of cautionary tale, an insight into the struggles your addictions have caused you that will also appeal to the younger generations. So it's OK to play up to the 'cool' side of it at first."

 _A prime opportunity._

"And the best part is, all volunteers in the 'Say No' production will be granted a special, monitored release for two days to spend time with their loved ones. So, any volunteers?"

Despite himself, Titus raised his hand.

 **Day 62**

Titus had never seen himself physically a day over 30 years old. Actually, 30 was perhaps a stretch. 27-28 was more likely. Balem had always loved to comment on how wasteful Titus was with the use of his Regenex supplies, but who the fuck cared? It wasn't as if it had been in short supply _, ever_. His siblings' fondness for allowing themselves to age to the point of greying hair and wrinkles before they regenerated had always repulsed him, and he'd vowed never to allow himself to age in such a way.

That night, his mind betrayed him yet again.

The nightmare had begun as many did- a party. Completely intoxicated, he'd staggered from one room to the next, until he'd reached the bathing pools. _Nothing beats a gratuitously unnecessary Regenex bath_ , he'd thought to himself. It wasn't until he passed by the glassy reflection of himself against the walls of the bathing room that he saw his haggard, aged face. Grey hair, sunken eyes, and disgustingly wrinkled skin. Gasping in horror, he practically fled to the nearby pool, preparing to dive in fully clothed. Only it was completely empty.

 **Day 63**

Leothane had been cast in the lead role, as himself. It was ridiculous that there should even be lead and secondary roles, given that everyone had to play themselves anyway. Shule had clearly written this script within days. Perhaps even more ridiculous still, was the frustration Titus had begun to feel at having _not_ been cast as the lead role.

"Oh, but I love partying. I love it so much, I love it so much that I…" Titus read the script in a monotone, his eyes fixed on the paper, one hand in his pocket, his expression blank. He squinted at the script. "…I love it so much that I would rather…" He paused, looking up at Shule with a mixture of disgust and hysterical bemusement, "…that I would rather give up Regenex than give up partying…"

"I used to feel that way too, Titus…" Leothane read from his script, he was a bad actor. He was such a _bad_ actor. "But then I—"

"Forgive me, but are you serious?" Titus interrupted, waving the script in Dr. Shule's direction. "This is completely unrealistic!"

Shule raised his eyebrows in that deliberately bored fashion Titus knew all too well by now.

"And why is that, Titus?"

"Because I wouldn't give up Regenex for _anything!"_

 **Day** **64**

Maybe it should have been a nightmare, but it wasn't.

The wall to ceiling window captured the view of the harvest outside perfectly, the blood and carnage of the unfortunate planet in which the clipper had landed was somehow being transformed into an instant supply of Regenex, fed through large metal tubes that gushed into the pool below. The sharp, bitterly chemical aroma that normally masked the true scent of blood and raw meat that Regenex emanated was no longer present, and the filtration system of the tubes wasn't very good. Every now and then, bits and pieces of unused flesh were sneaking through into the water.

Titus took a deep breath in. Content, he swam through the water, eyes closed in ecstatic bliss.

 **Day 65**

Today, it didn't matter what Titus did, nothing would stop reminding him.

Today had been his original release date, but a combination of the recent drug mishap and his attempted escape had managed to push his stay in Panacia to a total of 110 days. But it was OK. All he had to do was go along with Shule's stupid play a little longer, and he'd get his two day release. He'd have a chance to indulge in all of the luxuries he'd been denied inside this place, a chance to sleep in a bed that wasn't essentially a glorified hammock, and the chance to see Kalique. And more importantly, the chance to use her Regenex. Everything would be OK.

 **Day 66**

"Hey, Titus, have you got any of that…" Leothane paused, looking down to his script, and then, with painful emphasis, proceeded – "…have you got any of that _'X'_? Wow….that was a wicked…buzz."

Titus burst out laughing, crumpling the script into his face in a vain attempt to stop himself.

"Titus, it's your line." Shule pointed out unnecessarily from across the room.

"…Sure thing… _mate_ …I've got some of that X…" Titus smirked through partially stifled laughter. Shule's script was awful. "…But how about I set you up with something a little stronger? I have something that is… _out of this world."_

Titus snorted as Leothane began to read his own lines once more, and before he could reach his next line, he had deteriorated back into hysterical laughter.

 **Day 68**

"Why does my character die, yet everyone else's lives?" Titus asked,

Shule shrugged.

"Your character is a cautionary tale."

 **Day 70**

Shule's terrible performance took place at a nearby community centre. An audience of bored teenagers who seemed as if they had been forced to watch the spectacle of a bunch of drug addicts degrading themselves stared back at the stage with a collective eye-roll. Shule gave a platitudinous introduction, and then the show began.

After roughly an hour and a half of cringe-inducing dialogue and saccharinely heart-warming scenes of 'redemption' that had briefly given Titus the urge to jump off stage and slap Shule across the face, the play had reached its final scene.

"Oh, how could I have been so foolish! How could I not have seen the error of my ways?!" Titus wailed with sardonic emphasis as he screamed in Leothane's face, who couldn't have possibly appeared more uncomfortable as he pulled Titus from the floor and held him in his arms. On cue, Titus began dramatically coughing as if he were hacking up blood, "Oh, Leothane, I don't want to die!"

Perhaps it would have been embarrassing, if not for the extreme satisfaction Titus found himself getting from Leothane's painful awkwardness. He emphasised the dramatic spluttering a little more, and then, equally as dramatic, fell dead in the other's arms, making sure to become as dead weight as possible in the process. He didn't like Leothane.

As the curtains closed, Titus winked at the other, pulling himself up as quickly as possible. He could hear Shule spewing out a second round of unhelpful platitudes.

"Asshole." Leothane mouthed in Titus' direction.

Titus simply gave a satisfied smirk in response, turning away and heading towards the back room.

That night, for the first time in weeks, he slept peacefully, free from the horrific nightmares that would have usually plagued him around this time. Despite everything, he was happy. In three days' time, he'd be granted his two day release.


	10. Limousine

**Day 73**

 _10am_

"Now it is my duty to warn you, Abrasax, if you are caught indulging in any mind altering substances during your temporary release, you may be subject not only to an extended stay, but further penalties from the court. Do you understand?"

Shule sighed, reluctantly stamping Titus' release form and handing him back his personal items. Behind him, Lyta sat in her office chair, an indifferent look upon her face.

"Does that include fucking, Dr Shule?" Titus was grinning; he had been relentless all morning, bathing in Shule's frustration at having to release him, even for a short time. He hadn't expected Titus to participate in the abomination that was the 'Say No' production, after all.

"Remember that you still have to come back here, Titus, and if you carry on with that, it is very much in my power to have you escorted straight to the solitary rooms as soon as you return. Frankly, I've had enough of all this—"

Titus wasn't really listening to Shule. He pushed the extravagant rings back onto his fingers, feeling his heart leap at the prospect of seeing Kalique once again. He was wearing the same black t-shirt and blue jeans he'd arrived at Panacia in, his hair slicked back with the water from the drinking fountain as usual. He looked OK, he decided, considering everything.

One of the reasons Titus had been confined within Panacia was the fact that Kalique owned a reasonably modest mansion several districts away. The planet of Desentes had been a favourite of the Abrasax family, Balem and Seraphi having also owned properties there before their deaths. Titus had always had very little interest in securing properties within neighbouring planets, his clipper was substantial, and some part of him felt uneasy with the concept of taking up residence in a planet his family may one day choose to harvest. Of course, none of the populations of these planets ever suspected a thing. If a planet was nearing its optimal extraction date, its leaders would be informed roughly a century before the harvest that their planet was exempt from harvesting for varying reasons. This system had worked reasonably well. After all, communication between planets was poor, survivors even more so. Titus had wanted to ask Kitty why she'd survived Balem's harvest of Zalintyre, but he knew it may have been the last question he ever asked.

 _1pm_

Kalique arrived two hours late, bitterly thanking the guards as they handed Titus over to her.

The hovering limousine waited in Panacia's parking lot, ready to take the two of them back to her mansion.

"It's powered by Regenex biproducts." Kalique told Titus, as they closed the doors of the limousine. "You wouldn't believe how fast it goes once it gets into the air. We'll be home in an hour…Kritza?"

"What?" Titus realised his attention had wondered at the mention of Regenex, he looked up to see Kalique pouring the bubbly alcohol into the two tall glasses. She handed him a glass.

"It's the finest Kritza Cerise has to offer, I made sure of it." She smiled, raising her glass in the air. "It's so good to see you brother."

Titus eyed the glass as the bubbles rose and burst as they reached the top of it.

"I'm not supposed to." He smiled, as if waiting for approval.

"You're not _supposed_ to?" Kalique laughed. "Come on now, Titus, you're free for the next 48 hours-"

"46, actually. You were late."

"Oh, shush. Anyway, you're an Entitled, for goodness sake. No one is able to tell you what you're supposed to do outside the walls of _that place_." Kalique said with uncharacteristic contempt.

"What happened to you thinking I should be in there?" Titus raised his brow, smiling.

"Oh, I don't know. You should be, probably." Kalique shrugged.

Titus winced slightly, but continued to smile.

"I admit, I was shaken when you had the overdose. I thought you might… "

She trailed off, her gaze becoming briefly distant and detached, before her expression revived, and she looked back up towards Titus. "But who cares if you should or shouldn't be there? Jupiter Jones has no right to decide whether or not you should be."

Kalique took a sip of the Kritza, to which Titus took several swigs of his own.

"Jupiter Jones isn't an Entitled, she's Regenex fodder. That's her true birth right." She said, finding herself shocked by her own statement, laughing.

Titus laughed too, taking another swig of Kritza.

"She took my Regenex from me." He found himself saying, several minutes later, at the bottom of his glass.

" _What?"_ Kalique's carefree attitude had dissipated immediately. "She can't do that!"

"Not to you, perhaps." Titus muttered. "But I tried to _kill_ her. You know the plethora of legal loopholes involved when it comes to murdering another Entitled, short of my death or conventional imprisonment, she can do what she wants to me. And I'm in Panacia, which is basically a prison with a therapy room. She's angry, that's why she's taken my Regenex, she wants to drive me mad. And she will. She—"

"She's _not_ an Entitled." Kalique cut in, her voice now laced with venomous hostility as she thought of Jupiter Jones.

She leaned over, poured Titus another glass of Kritza.

"Don't worry little brother. I know you've never liked me holding it over you, but you know I have at least twice the amount of Regenex supplies you had. I know we've never been too good at sharing, but..."

Kalique was unable to finish her sentence, before Titus had set his glass down, and wrapped his arms around her in the tightest embrace he could remember having held her in for a long time.

"Why?" He asked, finally, pulling away just enough so that he could see her face.

"Would you believe me if I just said you're my brother and I love you?" Kalique smiled back, with that characteristically strange, playful hostility.

"No."

"Didn't think so. The truth is, I need someone else to help me take that changeling down, someone else to bask in the satisfaction of seeing her fall, watching her die, as she watched our brother die. If she had her way, you'd be psychologically tortured to insanity, and I, well what would I be? Her submissive little daughter, infinitely apologizing for my 'evil' brothers and all their _awful_ sins, kissing her arse just enough for her to not question why I'm still harvesting planets and using Regenex? _Fuck her."_

Titus laughed at his sister's unusual vulgarity, still in a blissful haze from the news of his new Regenex supplies.

"Besides, it's just me and you now, brother. We're alone together in this wretched universe." Kalique smiled back, leaning closer towards Titus.

Something was different between them now, and for the first time in centuries, Titus began to experience the sensation of being drawn to her, wanting her, needing her.

Seconds later, their lips met.


	11. Home

_2:15pm_

Kalique had often described her Desentes mansion as a 'modest little place', although as he closed the door of the limousine, stepping outside to face the large four storied building with its huge, arching doorway patterned with mosaic tiles complete with imposing marble pillars at either side, Titus realised this description was absolute bullshit.

"Oh, I'm so excited to have you home." Kalique was practically grinning as she led Titus by the hand towards the archway. Her hand squeezed tightly on his own as she smoothed her free fingers over his. It had stopped at a kiss in the limousine, a prolonged kiss, but nothing more. Nothing had been spoken of it since. Unlike some of the more disastrous encounters over the past centuries, however, this time didn't appear to be one Kalique immediately regretted.

3pm

Every property Kalique owned seemed to eventually acquire a rather impressive garden, and it seemed the Desentes mansion was no exception. Further adding to the non-existent modesty of the mansion, the garden was complete with an enormous hedge maze, floral garden spotted with benches and swings, and an impressive pond on the other side of the maze. And Kalique took no time in hesitating to show it off.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? I had it commissioned over a century ago, and would you believe, I haven't seen it until this week!" Kalique enthusiastically admired the floral garden, linking her arm around Titus' as she lead him to the entrance of the hedge maze.

"You know, when you get out of that awful place, you should consider investing in something a little more…permanent."

"I like the clipper. It's hassle free." Titus shrugged.

"But it's not a real home, is it?" Kalique teased.

"Balem used to say that." Titus said, beginning to feel rather light headed from a combination of the intense heat and the Kritza. "Which I always thought to be a bit rich. I mean, he chose to live opposite his fucking Regenex refinery."

Kalique laughed.

"Oh I hated that place. Do you remember when he hosted Mother's birthday there?"

"How could I forget?"

"Which reminds me-" Kalique said quickly, as if the previous statement had been deliberately set up, "-we're going to be attending a party tonight."

"Oh, but I've been to _so_ many parties already this week." Titus smiled, feeling an immediate sense of unease.

5pm

Titus had always found Kalique's insistence on formal dining even in the most unnecessary circumstances irritating, and had often dealt with such invites by getting catastrophically drunk before the main course and causing some sort of petty argument with Balem. Tonight was different. There was no across the dinner table smarminess, there was no Balem. Apparently Kalique noticed this too, at least she seemed to as she stared down at the fine china plates and silverware set before her. Perhaps she'd been in a daze, for the moment Titus deliberately slammed down the crystal glass a little too hard against the table, her gaze snapped up to meet his, an affected smile forcing itself over her melancholic expression.

"I've asked my staff to make your favourite tonight." She smiled, swinging back into her usual, cheery older sister persona so easily even Titus found it jarring. She then proceeded to describe some sort of food Titus had never heard of before in his entire life.

"Wow, my favourite." Titus practically mimicked his sister's overly cheery expression. "How did you remember?"

7pm

"Will you zip me up?"

Kalique wandered into the guestroom, sitting herself down at the edge of the red satin bedspread beside Titus.

Titus' fingers ran across the smooth skin of her back as he zipped the back of her dress up. She stood quickly, giving him a twirl of the short white dress, encrusted with so many tiny fragments of pale precious rocks he could barely distinguish what they were.

"Does it look OK?" Kalique asked, in a tone that suggested she was already well aware that it did.

"You know it does. You inherited mother's beauty in every way." Titus teased.

"Oh, please. I was never as pretty as her." Kalique laughed, approaching Titus once again, studying him. "Or was I?"

"What?" Titus was caught off guard as he watched Kalique sit back down beside him.

"Am I prettier than our mother was?" Her voice had taken a more sincere tone.

Titus hesitated, unsure of whether or not he was being set up for a trick question. "Why are you asking me if—"

"Oh, you're so easy to wind up!" Kalique snapped back into her cheery tone, shoving him on the arm playfully. "You should have seen your face!"

Titus shoved her back lightly, although he did not remove her arm from his grip after doing so, pulling her closer towards him. He kissed her, and she kissed him back. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but he knew he wanted to. Kalique was giggling, muttering something about how they shouldn't, but they would, and she wanted to besides, because who was going to stop them? He really wished she'd stop talking.

8:15pm

The limousine had pulled back up outside as the oppressively hot sun began to set, casting large black shadows across the courtyard of Kalique's mansion that reminded him of the climbing black towers of Balem's refinery.

There was a new, fancy alcohol in the back of the limo now, Kalique was explaining to him where it came from, how long it took to make, how expensive it was, and Titus wasn't listening, wondering whether or not she would be quiet for long enough to allow him to drink several glasses of it before they arrived at the party. He was so absorbed in ignoring her, that he didn't notice her hand creeping across to grab his own.

"See, this is why we stopped all of this." She was grinning.

"What do you mean?" Titus felt tense, reluctantly looking up in her direction.

"You get so awkward afterwards, are you like this with all the girls you fuck?" She was teasing, but he pulled his hand away anyway.

"Lighten up, Titus, you've only got a few hours of freedom to enjoy, so why don't you enjoy it like an Abrasax?" Kalique poured the fancy-overpriced-not-from-around-here alcohol into a glass and handed it to him, raising her own glass as she did so. She was already a little drunk, but so was he. "A drink to us, and all our fucking money!"

They both laughed, and drank.

"Trust me Titus," Kalique smiled, "tonight is going to be a night you'll never forget!"


	12. Stranger

**9pm**

The limousine had travelled into the nearby city of which Titus couldn't remember the name of, travelling through the narrow roads encased within the towering jungle of tall buildings and blaring neon lights. It was the first time in months Titus had seen anything like it. Panacia was a flat, dull place. Perhaps to the poor, Panacia's shitty gardens with their tacky water features and cheap flowers were exciting, but to him, they served as nothing more than a constant reminder that the lives of non-Entitled beings completely sucked. Maybe he wouldn't go back, Titus thought to himself, maybe he'd run away at the end of the night, buy some better legal assistance, and tell Jupiter Jones where to shove her sentence.

"We're here." Kalique squeezed his arm, he'd zoned out.

As he climbed out of the limousine to face the towering sky scraper before him, he gazed up towards the pinkish sky, and suddenly felt very dizzy.

 **9:15pm**

The building was owned by some business colleague of Abrasax Industries Titus had never dealt with before. Not that he really dealt with anything business related, that was what he paid his cluster of idiots-in-suits to do. It was a near perfect arrangement; every now and then they'd have the audacity to accuse him of not caring at all about the business, he'd threaten their jobs, they'd leave him alone, and he wouldn't have to deal with anything other than the huge amounts of profit he received each year. That was how he liked it, it always had been that way, and Kalique's lengthy backstory on the important ties between Abrasax Industries and this building had been a challenging ordeal to pretend to listen to.

 **10pm**

Some business-type bat splice was waffling on about his admiration for the tenacity of Abrasax Industies over the blaring music, how he admired their superiority to competing Regenex companies, their efficiency in harvesting, blah blah blah. Titus wasn't really listening; his focus had been drawn to the huge, framed photograph behind the splice. It was a photograph of a harvest. It was so gory, and yet it sat framed in a triumphant, gilded frame as if it were some sort of trophy. He wasn't drunk enough for this.

 **11pm**

"And this must be Titus," Some overly-enthusiastic man in a suit that looked expensive but Titus could tell wasn't at all held out his hand towards him.

Titus took a swill of his glass, and then decided to finish it entirely before setting it down clumsily on the table next to him.

"Titus," Kalique was smiling through gritted teeth, jabbing him in the side with her elbow. "Say hello."

 _"Hello."_ Titus grinned, sarcastic, drunk. He glanced between the disappointed looking man in his crappy suit to Kalique, who looked as if she were considering whether or not to pour her drink over his head.

"Well, I must get back to…" The man nervously looked behind him towards a group of people nearby. "I, uh… I'll speak to you later, Kalique."

"Did you bring any drugs with you tonight?" Titus slurred, as the man awkwardly slinked away in the opposite direction to the people he had been glancing towards.

"That place really hasn't done a lot for you, has it?" Kalique raised her brow, looking towards Titus with a mixture of amusement and sadness.

"Well, it's not as if you can take the higher ground tonight, is it sister?" Titus was smirking, he had that look on his face, that bizarrely charming look that seemed to convince most of the women he came across to sleep with him. But he was too drunk, and Kalique was immune.

"You know I haven't got any drugs, Titus." Kalique sighed. "Why don't you ask someone here? These people seem so desperate to please us it's making me cringe; they'd probably give you a _limb_ if you asked them to."

"You don't care?" Titus asked, the grin still plastered on his face as he leaned against the crystal ledge, reaching for the bottle of expensive-whatever-who-cares to pour another drink.

"What?"

"You don't care if I do?" Titus sipped his new drink, already knowing the answer.

"Just don't throw up in my limousine." Kalique replied, pushing herself away from the ledge and wandering out into the crowd.

 **12am**

Kalique had disappeared. He was pretty sure she was pissed off with him, but whatever. He'd drank enough to not be concerned with this for at least a couple of hours.

As Titus found his way to the balcony, he found that the hot weather of the day had now developed a sharp, cold breeze as the night went on, and he now wished he hadn't given his jacket to that pretty human girl earlier.

A figure stood at the balcony, male, probably a splice, it was hard to make out after drinking as much as he had.

"This party's awful, isn't it?" Titus slurred, approaching the figure, wandering over to the balcony and grasping hold of the bars until he was side by side with the splice.

The splice didn't reply, nor did he look back towards Titus, his gaze remaining fixed upon the city below.

"Oh, wow. You must be even drunker than me." Titus laughed, leaning closer to the splice to inspect him.

In an instant, the splice had grabbed hold of his arm, and wrenched it into a painfully unnatural position, pulling Titus closer to him, pressing him tightly against the edge of the balcony.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment." The splice finally spoke, his voice low, soft, inhibited just enough to conceal the underlying rage in his tone.

Disorientated and confused, it took Titus a few seconds to adjust to what was truly happening as he felt his arms being pulled behind his back, his gaze now forced towards the city below.

"You know, this isn't a very wise decision." Titus was struggling to conceal his nerves as he spoke. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Oh, I certainly do. You're the youngest Abrasax brat."

The splice twisted Titus' arm slightly, and he yelped despite himself.

"Your family harvested my planet five years ago. Exitiar, do you remember Exitiar, Abrasax?"

He twisted Titus' arm further, and he yelped once more.

"You're going to pay for what your family did to my planet tonight, Abrasax. You, and your sister."


	13. Barbarian

**Day 74**

12:15am

Titus could feel the gamma pistol pressing into his back as the splice pushed him back through the open doors of the balcony, back inside the lavish penthouse of the skyscraper. He felt his heart thumping against his chest. Of course, he was afraid, but something else was distracting him, something far more detached. Everything felt as if it could end now, and it would be a suitable conclusion, this whole thing felt almost like a karmic inevitability for someone like Titus, he'd felt the same way the day he'd been told Balem had died. But fuck this guy anyway. What did karma have to do with _anything_ in this universe?

"You're an idiot." Titus laughed, as he was pushed into the hallway. "One of us is going to end up dead tonight, you must know this?"

"It'll be you." The splice growled, his voice filled with enraged uncertainty.

"Will it?" Titus sneered back, the humour leaving his voice somewhat, replaced with unintentional bitterness. In his drunken state, part of him just wanted to tell the splice everything he thought of Exitiar's fate in excruciating detail. How he didn't care at all what had happened to the fucking planet, how he'd bathed in a sample batch of its Regenex sent from Balem in a gesture of passive aggressive one-upmanship, how he'd quite enjoyed the remarkably high-quality regeneration qualities of Exitian Regenex. It had really brought out a youthful gleam in his eyes.

It was almost as if the splice had heard his every thought, for seconds later, Titus felt a sharp pain in the back of his head as the gamma pistol made contact with it. He yelped.

"If only you could see your _true_ self." The splice muttered. "That would wipe the smirk of your thousand year old pretty boy face, wouldn't it?"

"I'm just shy of _four_ thousand actually."

"Shut up!"

Moments later, Titus found himself being dragged into the main room, briefly detecting the shock on several onlookers faces before the sound of the pistol loading up distracted him entirely.

"Does anyone here know what a gamma pistol does?" The splice was shouting across the room, which had now fallen deadly silent, the music coming to a halt almost immediately after the crowd.

Titus scanned around the room for any sign of Kalique, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"It shatters just about every cell in the body, vaporizes a lot of the victim actually, although it can't take away _everything."_ The splice was truly basking in the attention he had garnered now, the pistol held to Titus' left temple. "What's left is pretty much entirely liquidized of course. You know, the process of gamma vaporization is actually very similar to the process used in…"

From within the crowd, someone shrieked, too much for them. They collapsed, but the splice went on.

"…as I was saying, the process of killing someone with a gamma ray…" Titus winced as he felt the pistol pressed further into his temple. Despite himself, he found his breathing was becoming consistently unsteady, "…well it's actually very similar to that used in _Harvesting._ I assume you're all very familiar with the use of Regenex? Of course you are, you all look fantastic."

"What do you want?" One of the male guests demanded.

"What I _want_ you can't give back to me." The splice growled, his voice a mixture of hysteria and sorrow. "Any of you ever indulged in the Exitiar strain of Regenex by any chance?"

The sound of the gamma pistol reaching its peak was imminent, and Titus closed his eyes.

 _It's OK. I've lived a very long time. Too long perhaps._

 _Look what happened to Balem. He lived too long._

 _I'm fine with this._

 _No. I'm not. Balem shouldn't be dead. I don't want to die._

Titus' eyes snapped open suddenly, the grip on his arm loosened, the pistol pulled sharply away from his temple. Before he could even register what had happened, he noticed the splice had fallen to the floor in front of him. A jewelled hand reached down to retrieve the pistol, turning it off immediately. Titus looked to his side in shock. Beside him, Kalique stood- a large, brass candleholder in one hand, the unloaded gamma pistol in the other.

"I hate sore losers, don't you, Titus?" She muttered, looking down at the unconscious splice.

Titus was speechless.

"Let's kill him!" One of the human female guests snarled, the anger in her voice animalistic.

"No." Kalique shook her head. "No, I simply won't ruin the party with such barbarianism…" She paused, looking from the splice, back to Titus, "…no…I have a much better idea."

1am

"You asked us earlier, didn't you, if we'd ever indulged in Exitian Regenex?" One of the guests, maybe he was the host, asked rhetorically.

The splice was screaming, writhing, as he was dragged through the entrance of the bathing room, the harsh chemical aroma of the Exitian Regenex filling the air.

The guests stood around the pool, glasses in hand, spectators to the imminent show.

Kalique stood at the head of the pool, beside the diving board, her hand wrapped around Titus', a smile on her face. Titus felt sick, having been unable to string a sentence together up until this point.

"You're shaking." Kalique said, squeezing his hand lightly. "Are you sure you're OK? Are you sure that _thing_ didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine." Titus replied, his vision locked on the struggling Exitian splice as he was dragged closer and closer to the pool edge.

"Do you know the punishment for attempting to murder an Entitled? Do you?" The man restraining the splice was laughing, pressing the splice's face inches away from the Regenex pool. "Death!"

The splice was sobbing.

"Just kill me! Anything! Not this, please!"

The crowd began to laugh, Kalique's smile increased, although she didn't quite join in. Titus felt strange.

"Why are you crying? Don't be such a fucking baby! We're giving you something you wouldn't be able to afford in a thousand years you moron! Do you know how much this Regenex pool costs?" Another guest spat.

The splice was writhing desperately still, screaming, crying.

"It's my planet! It's my planet! Please, I couldn't live with myself if it touched me—"

"Oh, my heart breaks." A jeering guest cut in.

A strange part of Titus wanted to see it. He wanted to see the idiotic splice thrown into the Regenex of his home planet, wanted to see him suffer for what he had intended to do to him. However, for the most part, he felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to tell Kalique to end it, send the splice to be arrested. But he couldn't.

A splash of water suddenly, and then a scream like Titus had never heard before. And then came the laughter, the jeering, malicious laughter. Kalique was almost laughing, but not quite.

The splice was shrieking, desperately trying to clamber back up from the pool, only to be shoved back into it by the guests once again.

"Think how shiny and new you'll be afterwards!" Someone laughed.

The screaming mingled with the laughter until it practically blended with the jeering rhythm, becoming completely insignificant.

"Kalique…" Titus swallowed, tearing his gaze away from the pool, his voice shaky. "I'd like to go home now, please."


	14. Distance

3am

Kalique had brushed off Titus' request to leave with a dismissive 'Don't be daft'. Eventually the splice had been pulled from the Regenex pool, and eventually the screaming became distant, and then stopped entirely. He didn't ask, he drank more, searched around the party for anyone who might be willing to give him something stronger, and eventually ran into a human woman around the age he appeared to be who seemed vaguely familiar. He must have drunk a lot more during this search, because they ended up fucking in one of the unoccupied bedrooms.

Kalique must have been looking for him for a while as she seemed pissed off even before she noticed what was going on as she opened the door on the two of them.

4am

"Well if you didn't want me to do it, you should have listened when I said I wanted to go." Titus was slurring, although still somehow managing to pour himself another drink as he slumped against the back of the limo.

Kalique narrowed her eyes, her arms crossed. Despite how ridiculously intoxicated he was, he still managed to retain that obnoxious haughtiness and self-satisfaction she normally found both irritating and naively endearing. Tonight it was just irritating.

"Do you really think you need to drink more?" She asked coldly.

Titus laughed.

"Oh, come on… don't tell me you're mad about _her…"_ Titus was grinning, his eyes practically glazed over by this point, he spilt half the drink on the floor, looked at the remaining contents as if it were a vial of poison, and set it down clumsily on the miniature table, "… I mean…it's not as if you can be angry with me, I'm your _brother_ after all… we shouldn't have even—"

"Oh, shut up Titus." Kalique snapped, "You know, actually, I _can_ see why Balem always hated you." She added, somewhat childishly.

"Balem was an arsehole." Titus laughed.

"So are you!"

"Here's good, let me out here…" Titus began attempting to pull the limo door open, sliding slightly off his seat as he did so. "I'll walk the rest of the way."

"Stop being an idiot!" Kalique was slurring also as she crawled across the leather seats towards Titus in an attempt to pull him away from the door, realising for the first time that night how drunk she was. She grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him back up, turning him to face her. "You're such an idiot. Why did you have to get yourself locked up in that place and leave me alone? I can't stand it."

"I don't know, why did you have to put the splice in that Regenex pool, why did you have to do that?"

"Because he tried to kill you. And you're all I have."

8pm

Bathing in Kalique's Regenex pool had managed to kill whatever remained of the hangover, and it seemed almost as if the events of last night hadn't even happened. Almost.

Kalique had been quiet all day, she seemed distant and sad as she went on her endless tangents about Cerise and all the new life she had grown there, how one of the varieties she thought had died several millennia ago had suddenly started growing again, something about the high demand for a certain variety of something or other… Titus doubted she was even listening to herself speak, her voice sounded too automatic, as if she had already prepared whatever was coming out of her mouth so long ago it no longer required conscious thought. She was even better than he was at that.

 **Day 75**

Kalique had insisted on sending Titus back in the limo. She seemed even more detached than she had yesterday as she pretended to read through the paperwork she'd brought with her- like she really had any interest in paperwork.

"Surely it should be _me_ who's sulking this morning?" Titus said finally, breaking the silence. He smiled playfully back at her as she looked up.

"I think, what we did was a mistake." Kalique said, quickly, looking back down to the sheets of paper. "I don't think we should do it again."

"Oh, you change your mind every thousand years." Titus teased back, barely masking how irritated this had made him.

"I think, maybe we've taken too many liberties with how much time we have. Maybe we don't have much time left. I don't know." Kalique said, completely averting her gaze from him as the limo came to a halt suddenly, Titus could hear the engine slowing down, and he felt a sudden sense of horror and panic at the knowledge they'd arrived back at Panacia.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You're going to be late back." Kalique replied, dismissively.

 **10am**

"Titus, so glad to have you back with us, and just in time for the circle of connection too!"

Shule could barely contain his smugness as he pushed the form across the desk for Titus to sign.

"What did you do with your two days freedom?" Shule continued, somewhat frustrated he had yet to get a reaction. He frowned suddenly as he opened one of his draws, walking away from his desk.

"Oh you know," Titus pushed the form backacross the table, "…the usual. I went to a party, got incredibly drunk, then I was taken hostage by a crazed gunman, fortunately my sister overpowered him, we all threw him into a pool of his home planet's Regenex and we carried on the night as normal. Also I don't think Kalique's interested in having sex with me anymore. I don't know how to feel about that."

Shule, who was completely preoccupied with relocating some missing item, looked up irritably.

"What? Look, Abrasax, I don't have time for any of your smarminess this morning. You can leave now, make sure you are in the circle of connection today." He said, quickly, completely flustered from his efforts to locate his office keys.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Titus smiled back, pushing Shule's keys into his back pocket before turning around to leave his office.


End file.
